Study: No significant link between COVID-19 infection rates and in-person learning

Editor's Note

A nationwide study led by researchers at Binghamton University, State University of New York, finds that COVID-19 infection rates were not statistically different in counties with in-person learning versus remote learning in most regions in the US.

Analyzing data 12 weeks after schools opened (July to September 2020), before the Delta variant became predominant, and before vaccines were available, the researchers compared in-person and remote learning models at 895 school districts (about half of all schools nationwide) to infection rates collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Included were 459 counties (103 Northeast, 41 Mountain, 124 Midwest, 191 South). The Pacific regions was excluded because of limited variation in models (59 of 64 were fully remote).

Controlled analysis found that COVID-19 infection rates were not statistically different in counties with in-person learning versus remote learning in most regions.

The South, which was open for both in-person and remote leaning, had a significant increase in cases, but Southern states used limited mitigation measures compared to the other regions. In the Northeast and Midwest, there were no differences in number of cases across in-person, remote, and hybrid learning models.

The researchers noted that the main argument to close schools was driven by flu studies that younger children don’t always show symptoms but they may transmit disease to older family members; however, they say this study found no evidence of this in most US regions.